The One Thing No One Wants To See In A Guest Bathroom

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Helping guests feel welcome in your home is somewhat of an art form — you want them to be comfortable but also to feel special during their time with you. To that end, certain maintenance tasks are part of prepping for a guest's visit: Putting fresh bed sheets on the guest bed for overnight visitors, vacuuming, and freshening up the house with a candle or simmer pot can all fall into the pre-guest prep checklist. There's another tip for quickly getting your bathroom ready when house guests come over: making scarce that current bar of soap in the bathroom.

It's always safe to assume that a guest will be making use of your bathroom, even for short visits. If all that you have to offer them is a slimy or obviously half-used bar of soap, however, they might be grossed out. While there's nothing intrinsically wrong with bar soap, once it has been used a few times, it begins to look worn out and tired. Simply put, soap is the one thing you shouldn't skimp on if you want a welcoming bathroom. Fortunately, this is an easy fix that doesn't need to take up any extra time. When guests are on their way, simply swap out your current bar of soap for a bottle of liquid hand soap. You don't have to tell your guests that they are getting the gold-star treatment — they will subconsciously know that you thought of every little detail.

Keeping the bathroom ready for guests is an incredibly important but also straightforward process. If you like the cost savings that come from using bar soap on the day to day with your family, you can continue doing so. The key is just to keep that liquid hand soap available for when company is on the way. That way, instead of guests having to use a cracked and shrunken bar of soap, they can utilize a perfectly fresh soap pump that looks nice and gets the job done — it's a win-win. 

In order to ensure that you are never caught off guard, it's best to keep your liquid soap arsenal stocked. You can do this in a number of ways. Firstly, you can stock up on affordable soap pumps like Softsoap hand soap, which often cost less than $2 per bottle. With a few of these under the sink or in your restock cabinet, you'll always be prepared. 

Another option is to find an attractive, refillable soap pump that works well with your bathroom decor. Then, pair the reusable soap pump with a larger soap refill bottle. These larger bottles of liquid soap are often more affordable than buying individual, pre-filled soap pumps over and over again. Or, if you like the foam soap experience, you can make your own at home — it's easier than you think. Remember to wipe down your liquid soap pump from time to time, too, to prevent gummed up, dried soap on the bottle.